


One Broken Heart Closer, To The Love Of My Life

by Pink_and_Velvet



Category: Top Gun (1986)
Genre: Drinking, Falling In Love, Fluff, Growing Old Together, Guest lists, Hurt and comfort, Invites, LGBTQ Themes, Love Confessions, M/M, Memories, Moving On, One sided relationship, Previous Relationship, Teenagers, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-11-02 06:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20649173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_and_Velvet/pseuds/Pink_and_Velvet
Summary: Maverick’s wedding guest list raises more than a scrutinising blonde eyebrow from Iceman as he relives some of his past relationships.





	One Broken Heart Closer, To The Love Of My Life

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Hey Baby, I Think I Wanna Marry You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20400043) by [Pink_and_Velvet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pink_and_Velvet/pseuds/Pink_and_Velvet). 

> I already had the whole Iceman/Cougar at flight school ship brewing for a while and thanks to Boa, I’m finally exploring it. Hope I’m not stepping on anybody’s toes with this one!

**Saturday, October 1st 2011:**

“Okay, Ice, I think the guest list is about done. My part anyway.”

They were both sprawled out on the living room carpet.

“We can work out the current students and faculty numbers after.”

Iceman crawled over to Maverick, deftly avoiding the wayward papers, a couple pens, two beers and a wedding invite mock-up to kiss him. He tasted malty, lips cool and slick. Iceman shivered slightly as Maverick pulled away.

Iceman whipped out his reading glasses then, his golden fountain pen followed.

“I’ll add Wood And Wolf to mine, then?” Iceman asked, not taking his eyes off of the page.

“Yeah Tom, I guess. You guys all went to flight school together, it makes sense to split it like that.”

Iceman’s pen began a leisurely dance across his knuckles. Whenever he did, Maverick felt a strange pang of nostalgia strike him. Twenty-five years. Twenty-five years and those fingers could still blow his mind.

Iceman surveyed the first portion of the guest list:  
_Carole & Bradley Bradshaw_  
_Viper & Corrine Metcalfe_  
_ Jester & Rachel Heatheley_  
_ Merlin_  
_ Chipper & __Sundown_

The next names were caught in his throat:  
_Cougar & Maria Cortell_

“Ice, what is it?” Maverick turned with furrowed eyebrows as he tilted his head.

“You really want to invite—“

“—_Charlie_? Yeah well, I know we lost touch for a couple decades but she’s still important to me. I’ve met her here and there and she’s one of the reasons I realised that I—“

“—Had fallen off of the pussy wagon?”

Maverick stifled a laugh.

“Christ Maverick, Charlotte Blackwood?” Iceman exclaimed, hastily scanning the list to find that name. “The hell are you thinking?”

Maverick knew a fight was coming on that one but the slump in Iceman’s shoulders and sudden defeated look on his face told him that the fight was simmering, dissipating into something less. Charlie wasn’t who Iceman had freaked out about.

“It’s not Charlie, is it?” Maverick asked wearily.

Iceman’s pen stalled, it’s elegant writhe over his elegant fingers forgotten. He broke his pattern and starred a certain couple.

“Bill and Maria? Ice I don’t-“ Maverick was looking to Iceman, to the page, to Iceman, to the page “get what’s wrong? You guys were _like brothers in flight school _and he was my squadron leader. I’d flown with him a handful of times and you never stopped seeing him. He was one of your best friends. It may have taken us about ten years to get back to.. yeah. Bill’s a great guy, you know that.” Maverick’s voice was oddly compassionate.

Iceman muttered something that he didn’t quite catch. He turned away from Maverick and ran a nervous hand through his greying hair. Not that it was obvious, he had always worn silver (or was it platinum?) well.

“Mitchell, I.. I don’t think-“ Iceman paused, looked up to the ceiling and sniffed, “I can’t have an _ex_ there, I mean it.” He stammered his way through, words running quicker than normal.

Maverick’s eyebrows shot up.

“Slider’s your best man.”

Iceman let that one slide. “He married a woman.”

“No shit, Kazansky. We were there. For some strange reason, he _allowed_ me in. As did Cortell.”

Iceman fidgeted.

”Only because we uh, started.. you know, a thing back then.”

”Quite a big thing _now_, Mitchell.”

”The hell did you and Cougar uh, _do?_” It was more out of surprise than anything. “You and..” He turned his attention back to his guest list, “Cougar. Fricking Bill Cortell.. had a.. you two had a _thing_? When was this?”

Iceman still wasn’t looking at him, only the sounds of his quickened breaths filled the room.

“It doesn’t matter. It was.. forever ago.. invite who you want, it doesn’t matter, Mav. Really doesn’t—“

“—Bullshit Kazansky, you’re not happy. I don’t have to invite him just, tell me why you’re getting upset.” Maverick leaned over to clutch at his shoulder and he knocked a beer can. “Christ Ice, I’m sorry.” 

“_Shit_.” Iceman winced as the cool liquid began to seep through his jeans.

It was at that moment Maverick realised. He studied Iceman’s profile: the familiar blush of his cheeks and rapidly blinking eyes. He was trying not to cry.

“Ice?”

“We.. fucking hell.” Iceman’s eyes scanned the room for a tissue box, “fooled about.. a lot.. when we were.. younger.” He began to mop up the stray beer.

“Tom?” Maverick’s voice cracked on the single syllable. “Please, tell me.”

Iceman looked pained, guilt riddled and- something Maverick hadn’t seen before. In all of their (admittedly fewer) years of being emotional and exploring those non sex based emotions, he hadn’t seen this particular guise of the Iceman.

“It’s not like I didn’t—“

“—I _loved_ him.” Iceman muttered, voice strained, as he focused his gaze on Maverick’s face. “He was my first love. Maverick, I.. I’m so sorry I hadn’t told you. I never thought that he would end up serving with you, that you would be the reason he- _Christ_.” Iceman willed himself to stop.

Maverick just sat still. Now wasn’t the time to get into that particular mission.

“It was a couple of years before Annapolis, before he left for assignment to.. to your squadron I suppose. Mav, please, don’t hate me.”

“Why in the fuck would I ever?” Maverick wrapped his arms around Iceman who, buried his face in his shoulder. Maverick was reeling, itching to find out. He needed to know. He felt as though he deserved to know.

Iceman knew Maverick had never loved anyone the way Maverick loved him. He deserved to know, no matter how long ago it was. Right? Iceman thought so.

“Ice, can you?” Maverick trailed off as he disengaged. He regarded Iceman, the foreign (and deeply concerning) expression. 

Iceman could stare MiG’s down from any distance but, Maverick could tell, he was fighting with himself to keep staring. At his lover.

“_Ice_.” He insisted.

It took him a few tries but Iceman talked and talked. He may have stuttered with his gaze repeatedly leaving his fiancé’s face but he talked. Maverick lay silent, hooked to every word. He was hooked to how, as the story developed, more sure of himself the Iceman became. Maverick pinpointed the exact moment that he sounded like himself again.

***

From high school, they fought to get top marks, Bill always either one point behind or, the perfect threat on Tom’s tail. They became close very early on, with Bill coming to Tom for relationship advice, the assumed wingman.

Tom’s heart had fluttered.

The late nights of revision in the library, running together, taking the same classes and working the same assignments.

Tom’s heart had clenched.

When the new year came they were assigned to bunk together. Their first kiss and Tom’s first time. (Only Tom’s, he already knew Bill had slept with a couple girls much earlier than he thought he ever would, it was clear that Tom hadn’t known that at the time).

Iceman had mentioned before about the agonising _wait_ but Maverick had never asked ‘for who’ (or ‘for whom’, as Iceman would correct). Tom had wanted to be sure that he was with the right boy, there was nothing wrong with that.

From what Maverick had understood, Iceman didn’t regret that wait.

Keeping mute, being torn apart by friends, late night rendezvous somehow off of campus.. Iceman kept on talking about their time together, a wry smile painting his handsome face.

Then when it came to Annapolis. Yeah, he stopped talking.

Tom’s heart had sank.

***

Maverick did the maths: Iceman was twenty-five when they had met and he worked his way backwards. He had known Cougar for about two years and Goose had been by his side for near four. So, he came to the quick conclusion that Annapolis was how it all ended. Tom going to Annapolis and leaving Bill behind. Or, was it the other way around? Bill had met his wife in high school, right?

After minutes in silence, Iceman drained the last of his beer (his jeans were soaking up more of it yet, he still hadn’t moved) and cleared his throat.

“Invite him.”

Maverick glanced up, eyes wide.

“Invite him. It’s not fair on me to put a few years of.. between all of this. Invite him, Mav. I want him there.” Iceman smiled. It was small but spoke volumes of how at ease he now felt, getting all of this off of his chest.

“It’s been decades. I can’t believe I didn’t, well I had my suspicions—“

“—Your _suspicions_.” Iceman repeated.

“I got a truckload of shit for taking his spot, Kazansky. Little did I know I was keeping ya apart.” Maverick waggled his eyebrows. Iceman didn’t laugh, as such.

“Again, your suspicions.. That we?”

“That he, Iceman _he_, was a little wildcard in the group.”

“No, no Mav. He always knew he’d marry a woman. I didn’t know that. You were the wildcard, _you_.”

“Well, at least I stayed on the right team.” He winked, grinning wildly at the sudden look of relief in his fiancé’s eyes.

“So, your not.. upset then?”

“Were you still hooked at TOPGUN, after I— holy shit. Ice, you were.” Maverick shook his head, dismissing the thought, “It explains a lot about your initial hatred for me.”

“Initial tension.”

“That too.” They both chuckled.

God, it was a whole other lifetime ago but that didn’t matter. The two of them had long ago accepted the other and the baggage that they bought with them. Maverick had proposed to Iceman and he had said yes for fuck’s sake, there was nothing that could stop them now.

Still mindful of the damp patch on the carpet, Maverick crawled over and climbed into Iceman’s lap. He smiled as the familiar touch of those hands caressed his sides. Maverick leant forward and kissed him nice and slow, the way that twenty-five year old Kazansky wouldn’t have believed to be possible. The way that reminded Iceman, that he wasn’t going anywhere.

The still strange weight of his left hand, the added bling, was also another perfect reminder.

“_Pete_” Iceman muttered, pulling away “we really need to talk about inviting Blackwood and.. damn, what’s her girlfriend’s name again?”

“Melanie.”

“Think they’ll last?”

Maverick shrugged, “I’d like to hope so.”

Iceman grinned again. That feral grin that still could make Maverick’s stomach flip. He loved it.

“You turned her didn’t you?”

“You turned me.”

Iceman coughed ‘bullshit’ into his hand.

“Alright, alright Kazansky. You know that ain’t true.” Then, softer: “Fuck, I probably _did_ turn her.”

Iceman was laughing and laughing so damn much that Maverick had to cling to his neck tighter to steady himself.

“Yeah, laugh it up Iceman. I fucking turned her. It’s a compliment.”

“It’s really not.”

“A compliment to you, idiot. I’m marrying _you_.”

Maverick chuckled with mirth at the sudden raised blonde eyebrow and challenging eyes.

***

He didn’t even realise until the following morning that he had yet to approve Iceman’s guest list. Damn Tom and those intrusive fingers that could still, even after twenty-five years, surprise the hell out of him.


End file.
